Control method, control apparatus, data receiving and recording method, data receiver and receiving method

ABSTRACT

A data receiving and recording method and data receiver are provided for receiving data coded by a predetermined method and copyright information attached to the data. While recording the received data on a predetermined recording medium, the copyright information is recorded into a predetermined area of the recording medium. Preferably, the data consists of audio data of the song, lyrics data of the song and image data relating to the song and the copyright information is allotted respectively to the audio data, lyrics data and image data.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/396,438 filed Apr. 3, 2006, which is a divisional of U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/694,458 filed Oct. 27, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,076,205,which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/354,612 filed Jul.15, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,668,158, the entire contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C.119 to Japanese Application Nos. P10-202360 filed Jul. 16, 1998,P10-202361 filed Jul. 16, 1998, and P10-202362 filed Jul. 16, 1998.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a control method and control apparatussuited for downloading, for example, music data or the like, transmittedvia a digital satellite broadcast to a data storage apparatus.

Digital satellite broadcasting is now spreading. Compared with existinganalog broadcasting, the digital satellite broadcasting resists noiseand fading and allows transmission of high quality signals. Also, thedigital satellite broadcasting improves frequency utilizing efficiencyand provides multi channels. For instance, in the digital satellitebroadcasting, it is possible for one satellite to provide severalhundreds of channels. The digital satellite broadcasting provides manyspecialized channels such as sports, movie, music and news, on whichchannels individual contents are broadcast.

Among these specialized channels, music channels are among the mostpopular broadcasting programs for promotion purposes in which mainly newsongs and hit songs are put on the air.

As stated above, programs for introducing new songs and hit songs areput on the air by means of moving pictures and sound via conventionalmusic channels. If viewers watch the music channels and find some songsfavorable, they want to buy CDs or the like containing the songs andenjoy them. Also, they are sometimes inclined to gather information onthe artists singing the songs they like and information on albumscontaining the favorite songs. When a viewer watches a music program andwants to know about information on an artist or his or her albumcontaining the viewer's favorite song, it is convenient that the viewercan obtain the information instantly. Further, when the viewer finds afavorite song, it is convenient that he or she can download audio dataon the song. The conventional music channels are, however, one-way mediato send moving pictures and sound and are not able to respond to suchrequests from viewers.

To solve the above disadvantage, there has been proposed a music contenttransmission system which allow viewers to easily obtain information onmusic put on the air on a music channel and to easily download musicdata to a data storage device (as described in, for example,PCT/JP98/05044 filed on Nov. 10, 1998 by the same applicant as that ofthis application). There has also been proposed downloading informationon lyrics and jacket data as well as the music data in the music contenttransmission system.

Meanwhile, to provide such a music content transmission system, a userside for receiving digital satellite broadcasting needs to connect atuner for receiving the digital satellite broadcasting needs to a datastorage device (recording device) which employs a storage medium such asa magneto-optical disc and needs to download music data received at thetuner to the recording device. In this case, if the music data receivedat the tuner is to be downloaded to the recording device, processing isneeded for controlling the recording operation and the like of therecording device based on data including the broadcast start and endtime of the song as well as music data received at the tuner. Thus, itis required to set the tuner and the recording device to operate incooperation with each other. For instance, there are various types ofrecording devices for recording audio signals. It is difficult for datafrom broadcasting stations from which music programs are transmitted todirectly control unspecified recording devices connected to tuners.

Furthermore, the number of recording devices connected to a tuner is notalways one and a plurality of recording devices may be connected to thetuner. In that case, it is also impossible for the broadcasting stationsto select the recording device to which music data is downloaded. It is,therefore, necessary to deal with them at the tuner side in some way.

It is noted that the above description concerns a case of transmittingmusic data by digital satellite broadcasting. The same problems occurwhen various content data transmitted are from the external side usingbroadcast waves or the like and are to be downloaded to the receptionside based on the data transmitted therefrom together with the contentdata.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to easily download content dataobtained from the external side to connection equipment.

The music data transmitted from the transmitting side by such atransmission system is usually copyrighted data. Therefore, if the musicdata downloaded to the user side recording apparatus is reproducedwithout restrictions, it is difficult to protect copyrights and themusic content transmission system itself might not be effectivelyutilized.

In addition, separate copyrights are given to the authors of thecharacter data on lyrics and the static image data on images of thejacket attached to the music data, respectively. It is, therefore,necessary to deal with those copyrights differently from the copyrightof the music data.

It is another object of the present invention to make it possible toappropriately deal with the recording of the transmitted data havingcopyrights.

When dealing with the reception of songs broadcast using such atransmission system and downloading them to a user side recordingapparatus, it is possible to download a song that the user likes to therecording apparatus just before the end of the broadcast time. This isaccomplished by determining the time at which the song that the userwants to record is broadcast (transmitted) by a certain method anddownloading the song that the user desires to the recording apparatus.Since many music data (songs) can be transmitted with such a system, ittakes a lot of time and labor to look for songs which the user desiresto download when a list of broadcast times of respective songs is simplydisplayed on a program guide screen.

It is yet another object of the present invention to make it possible toeasily deal with the processing required for obtaining desired data whenmuch data, such as music data, is transmitted by broadcasting.

According to the present invention a method for controlling a secondequipment connected to a first equipment by executing a first programinputted to the first equipment from an external side and a secondprogram prepared for the first equipment in advance, comprises the stepsof conducting processing for starting the second program; and acquiringinformation on the second equipment by execution of the started secondprogram.

According to the control method of the present invention, theacquisition of information on the second equipment by the first programinputted from the external side to the first equipment is executed bythe second program prepared in the first equipment.

In addition, a control apparatus according to the present inventioncomprises a first storage unit operable to store a first programinputted from an external side; a second storage unit prepared inadvance and operable to store a second program started by the firstprogram; and a processing unit for executing the programs stored in thefirst and second storage units, the processing unit being operable toacquire information on a connected equipment based on execution of thesecond program stored in the second storage unit and to control theconnected equipment based on the acquired information.

According to the control apparatus of the present invention, the controlof the equipment connected based on the first program inputted from theexternal side is executed through the second program contained in thisapparatus.

A data receiving and recording method according to the present inventioncomprises the steps of receiving data coded by a predetermined methodand copyright information attached to the data; and, while recording thereceived data on a predetermined recording medium, causing the copyrightinformation to be recorded in a predetermined area of the recordingmedium.

According to the data receiving and recording method of the presentinvention, the copyright information as well as the data is recorded onthe recording medium.

Further, a data receiver according to the present invention comprisesreceiving means for receiving data of multiplexed and transmittedcopyright information; determining means for determining the copyrightinformation received by the receiving means; and transmitting means fortransmitting the data received by the receiving means to a predeterminedrecording apparatus and transmitting the copyright informationdetermined by the determining means to the recording apparatus asinformation attached to the data.

According to the data receiver of the present invention, the copyrightinformation as well as the data is transmitted to the recordingapparatus to thereby make it possible to record the copyrightinformation as well as the data on the recording apparatus.

A receiving method according to the present invention comprises thesteps of receiving text data strings indicating names relevant to maindata transmitted by a broadcast on a predetermined channel; retrievingtext strings including a designated character string from the receivedtext data strings; displaying a list of the designated characterstrings; receiving the main data relevant to a selected character stringfrom the displayed character strings; and downloading the received maindata to a predetermined recording apparatus.

According to the receiving method of the present invention, it ispossible to retrieve necessary data based on the received text datastring and to download the retrieved data.

Furthermore, a data receiver according to the present inventioncomprises receiving means for receiving main data transmitted bybroadcast of a predetermined channel and text data indicating namesrelevant to the main data; input means for inputting character stringsto be retrieved; retrieval means for retrieving character stringsinputted by the input means from a text data string received by thereceiving means; display control means for creating image data fordisplaying text including the character strings retrieved by theretrieval means; and control means for receiving main data designated bya text selected from a table list displayed by the image data in thereceiving means and downloading the main data to a predeterminedrecording apparatus.

According to the data receiver of the present invention, the retrievalmeans can retrieve necessary data based on the text data string receivedby the receiving means and control means can download the retrieveddata.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an exemplified constitution of anoverall system in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an exemplified reception screen inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplified constitution of a datatransmission side in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing exemplified transmission data inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing exemplified transmission state inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing an exemplified packet structure inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing the concept of MHEG datatransmission in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an exemplified connection inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an exemplified IRD constitution inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an exemplified constitution of ademultiplexer in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an exemplified constitution of arecording apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 12 is an explanatory view showing an exemplified state in whichdata is recorded on a disk in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing an example of download processing inrespect of a predetermined channel in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart showing the detail of exemplified processing ina case where a download command is issued in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is an explanatory view showing the relationship betweenreception data and programs prepared in the IRD in accordance with anembodiment of to the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart showing another exemplified download processingin accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing an exemplified connection inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing an exemplified constitution of arecording apparatus in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 19 is a flow chart showing exemplified processing for downloadingcopyright information in accordance with another embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 20 is a flow chart showing exemplified retrieval processing inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 21 is an explanatory view showing the constitution of text datasuch as the name of a song in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Now, one embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to the accompanied drawings.

A system to which the present invention may be applied may be designedto broadcast a music program using digital satellite broadcastingtechnology and to transmit music data relevant to the music program,whereby a viewer can watch and listen to the music program and, if theviewer finds a certain song interesting, the viewer can easily buy thesong on the spot.

FIG. 1 shows the overall constitution of a music content transmissionsystem to which the present invention may be applied. As shown therein,material for TV program broadcasting from a TV program material server6, material for music data from a music material server 7, soundaddition information from an sound addition information server 8 and GUI(Graphical User Interface) data from a GUI data server 9 are transmittedto a ground station 1 of digital satellite broadcasting system.

The TV program server 6 provides material for ordinary music broadcastprograms. The music broadcast program transmitted from the TV programmaterial server 6 contains moving pictures and sound. In the ordinarymusic broadcast program, moving pictures and sound for, for example, thepromotion of new songs, are broadcast or the countdown of latest hitsongs is broadcast.

The music material server 7 provides audio programs using audiochannels. The material for the audio programs is only sound. The musicmaterial server 7 transmits material for audio programs of a pluralityof audio channels to the ground station 1. In the music broadcastprograms on the respective audio channels, the same songs are broadcastrepeatedly on predetermined unit time intervals. Each of the audiochannels is independent and is used in various manners. For instance,recommended songs among the latest Japanese popular songs may bebroadcast repeatedly for a predetermined time on a certain audiochannel, those among the latest American popular songs may be broadcastrepeatedly for a predetermined time on another audio channel, and thoseamong the jazz songs may be broadcast repeatedly for a predeterminedtime on yet another audio channel. Alternatively, a plurality of songsof a certain artist may be divided among the respective audio channelsand broadcast thereon repeatedly.

The sound addition information server 8 provides time information onsongs outputted from the music material server 7. The server 8 alsoprovides copyright information on each songs, i.e., information ondigital copy restrictions.

The GUI data server 9 provides data for creating a screen of a list pageof transmitted songs and an information page of the respective songs,data for creating static image data on jackets, data for creating an EPC(Electronic Program Guide) screen and the like. As will be described indetail later, the system to which the present invention may be applieddisplays lyrics of the transmitted songs and concert information ofartists by the operation of GUI on the screen. The system also canselect and download songs and can make reservations for the selectionand downloading of songs by operating the GUI on the screen. The GUIdata server 9 transmits data therefor. It is noted that the GUI data inthis embodiment are data in a format determined by, for example, MHEG(Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Experts Group) method. Thestatic image data on jackets and text data on lyrics are set to betransmitted while allotted copyright information to every data, i.e.,information on digital copy restrictions.

The ground station 1 multiplexes and transmits video data and audio dataserving as material for music program from the TV program materialserver 6, audio data serving as material for audio channels from themusic material server 7, sound addition information from the soundaddition information server and GUI data from the GUI data server 9. Atthis time, video data on the TV program broadcasting is compressed by,for example, a MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) 2 method. The audiodata on the TV program broadcasting is compressed by the MPEG audiomethod. The audio data on respective audio channels are compressed bytwo different methods, e.g., the MPEG audio method and the ATRAC(Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) method. These items of data areencoded using key information from a key information server 10 duringmultiplexing.

Signals from the ground station 1 are received by receiving equipment 3installed in each household through an artificial satellite 2. Aplurality of transponders are installed in the satellite 2. Atransponder has, for example, 30 Mbps transmission capability. Aparabola antenna 11, an IRD (Integrated Receiver Decoder) 12, a storagedevice 13 and a television set 14 are located at each household.

The signals transmitted through the satellite 2 are received by theparabola antenna 11. The received signals are converted to signals at apredetermined frequency by an LNB (Low Noise Block Downconverter) 15attached to the parabola antenna 11 and supplied to the IRD 12.

The IRD 12 selects a signal on a predetermined channel from the receivedsignals and demodulates video data and audio data. The IRD 12 alsocreates a list page of transmitted songs, an information page of therespective songs and an EPG screen. The output of the IRD 12 is suppliedto the television set 14.

The storage device 13 is provided to hold the downloaded audio data. Forinstance, an MD recorder/player using a magnet-optical disk referred toas MD as a storage medium, a DAT recorder/player using a magnetic tape,as a recording medium, a DVD recorder/player using, as a recordingmedium, an optical disk for video recording can serve as the storagedevice 13. It is also possible to use a personal computer as the storagedevice 13 and store audio data on a hard disk or a CD-ROM of thecomputer.

The IRD 12 is coupled to an accounting server 5 through, for example, atelephone line 4. An IC card storing various information is insertedinto the IRD 12. When the audio data on songs is downloaded, theinformation is recorded on the IC card. The information on the IC cardis fed to the accounting server 5. The accounting server 5 preparesappropriate accounting from the downloaded information and charges aviewer a fee. In this way, by appropriate accounting, it is possible toprotect a copyright of a downloaded song.

As described above, in the system in this embodiment, the ground station1 multiplexes and transmits video data and audio data serving asmaterial for music program broadcasting from the TV program materialserver 6, audio data serving as material for audio channels from themusic material server 7, sound addition information from the soundaddition information server 8 and GUI data from the GUI data server 9.If the broadcasting data is received at the receiving equipment 3 ineach household, a viewer can watch a music program and the GUI screen isdisplayed based on the transmitted GUI data. When one or more necessaryoperations are performed while looking at the GUI screen, the viewer canlook at the information page of the respective songs and try listeningto the respective songs. Further, by conducting one or more othernecessary operations while looking at the GUI screen, it is possible todownload audio data on a desired song and store it in the storage disk13.

Next, the viewer's operation of the receiving equipment 3 installed ateach household will be described in more detail.

If a broadcast wave is received at the receiving equipment 3 in eachhousehold, a screen shown in FIG. 2 appears on the television set 14. Amoving picture based on the music programs supplied from the TV programmaterial server 6 is displayed in a TV program display area 21A at thetop left-hand corner of the screen. A music list 21B broadcast onrespective audio channels are displayed at the top right-hand corner ofthe screen. A text display area 21C and a jacket display area 21D areset at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. A lyric display button22, a profile display button 23, an information display button 24, arecording reservation button 25, a reserved song list display button 26,a record history display button 27 and a download button 28 aredisplayed on the right of the screen.

The viewer looks for an interesting song while looking at the names ofsongs displayed on the list 21B. If the viewer finds a certain songinteresting, he or she operates an arrow key on a remote commander andputs a cursor on the name of the song and depresses an enter key on theremote commander attached to the IRD 12. Thus, the viewer can listen tothe music associated with the name on which the cursor is put. That is,since the same song is repeatedly broadcast for a predetermined unittime on each channel, it is possible to switch over to an audio channelon which the song is broadcast while the TV program display area 21A onthe scene is not changed, thereby making it possible for the viewer totry listening to the song. At this moment, the static image of the albumjacket containing the song is displayed in the jacket display area 21D.

In this state, the cursor is put on the lyric display button 22 and theenter key is depressed (which operations of putting the cursor on abutton and depressing the enter key will be referred to as ‘depress abutton’ hereinafter). Then, the lyrics of the song are displayed in thetext display area 21C in synchronism with the audio data. Likewise, ifthe profile display button 23 or information display button 24 isdepressed, the profile of an artist corresponding to the song, concertinformation, or the like is displayed in the test display area 21C. Inthis way, the user can see what types of songs are broadcast at presentas well as detailed information on the respective songs.

If the user wants to buy the song that he or she has just sampled, thedownload button 28 is depressed. When the download button 28 isdepressed, audio data on the selected song is downloaded and stored inthe storage device 13. In addition to the audio data on the song, thedata on the lyrics of the song, information on the profile of theartist, data on static image of the jacket and the like can bedownloaded. Every time a song is downloaded, information on the song isstored in the IC card provided in the IRD 12. The information stored inthe IC card is taken out by the accounting server 5, for example, onceper month, thereby making it possible to protect the copyright of thedownloaded song.

If the viewer wants to make a download reservation, he or she depressesthe recording reservation button 25. If the button 25 is depressed, theGUI screen is switched to display a list of songs which can be reservedon the entire screen. It is possible to display a list of songsretrieved for every hour, every week or every genre. If the viewerselects a song for which a download reservation is to made, from amongthe songs of the list, information on the selected song is registered inthe IRD 12. Then, if the viewer intends to confirm the song for whichthe download reservation has been made, a reserved song list displaybutton 26 is depressed and the list can be displayed on the entirescreen. The song thus reserved is downloaded at a reservation time bythe IRD 12 and stored in the storage device 13.

If the viewer intends to confirm the song downloaded, a recordinghistory button 27 is depressed and then a list of the songs which havebeen already downloaded is displayed on the entire screen.

As can be seen from the above, in the receiving equipment 3 of thesystem in this embodiment, a list of songs is displayed on the GUIscreen of the television set 14. If a song is selected in accordancewith the display on the GUI screen, the viewer can try listening to thesong and review the lyrics, profile of the artist, and the like.Furthermore, it is possible to download a song, make a reservation fordownloading the song, display a download history and a list of reservedsongs or the like.

As described above, in the music content transmission system to whichthe present invention may be applied, not only music broadcast programsare transmitted but also audio data on music are transmitted using aplurality of audio channels. Then, by searching a desired song using,for example, a list of songs broadcast, it is possible to easily storethe music data in the storage device 13. Now, this system will bedescribed in more detail hereinafter.

FIG. 3 shows the constitution of the ground station 1 in the musiccontent transmission system in this embodiment.

In FIG. 3, the material data from a TV program material registrationsystem 31 is registered in an AV server 35. The material data includesvideo data and audio data. The data registered in the AV server 35 istransmitted to a TV program transmission system 39 where the video datais compressed by, for example, an MPEG2 method and the audio data iscompressed by, for example, an MPEG audio method and packeted. Theoutput of the TV program transmission system 39 is fed to a multiplexer44.

The audio data from a music material registration system 32 is suppliedto an MPEG2 audio encoder 36A and an ATRAC encoder 36B, respectively,where the data is encoded and then registered in an MPEG audio server40A and an ATRAC audio server 40B, respectively. The MPEG audio dataregistered in the MPEG audio server 40A is fed to an MPEG audiotransmission system 43A where the data is packeted and fed to themultiplexer 44. The ATRAC data registered in the ATRAC audio server 40Bis fed to an ATRAC audio transmission system 43B as four-fold speedATRAC data, in which ATRAC audio transmission system 43B the data ispacketed and fed to the multiplexer 44.

Moreover, the sound addition information from a sound additioninformation registration system 33 is registered in a sound additioninformation database 37. The sound addition information registered inthe sound addition information database 37 is fed to a sound additioninformation system 41, where the information is packeted and then fed tothe multiplexer 44.

Additionally, the GUI data from a GUI material registration system 34 isregistered in a GUI material database 38. The GUI material dataregistered in the GUI material database 38 is fed to a GUI authoringsystem 42, where data on a GUI screen is processed, packeted and thenfed to the multiplexer 44. It is noted that the GUI material datainvolves static image information on a jacket, information on the lyricsof a song, information on concerts of an artist and the like. The staticimage information is, for example, information compressed by the JPEG(Joint Photographic Experts Group) method into 640×480 pixels and thelyric information is, for example, text data of 800 characters or less.Both the static image information and the lyric information arepacketed.

In the multiplexer 44, the video packet and audio packet from the TVprogram transmission system 39, the audio packet from the MPEG audiotransmission system 43A, the four-fold speed audio packet from the ATRACaudio transmission system 43B, the sound addition information packetfrom the sound addition information system 41 and the GUI data packetfrom the GUI authoring system 42 are time-base multiplexed and encodedusing key information from the key information server 10 (FIG. 1).

The output of the multiplexer 44 is fed to a radio wave transmissionsystem 45, where the data are subjected to error code addition,modulation, frequency conversion processing and transmitted from theantenna toward the satellite 2.

FIG. 4 shows an example of data transmitted from the ground station 1.It is noted that each item of the data is actually time-basemultiplexed. As shown in FIG. 4, it is assumed that one event is fromtime t1 to time t2 and the next event starts at time t2. An event is aunit in which the lineup of songs is changed, and the unit of one eventis normally 30 minutes to one hour. For instance, the 20th to 11th songsamong the top 20 of the latest hit songs are broadcast in an earlierevent and the 10th to first songs may be broadcast in a later event.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the event from time t1 to time t2, an ordinarymoving picture program is broadcast, i.e., a music program having apredetermined content A1 is broadcast. Moving pictures and sound arebroadcast on this ordinary music program.

Ten channels of CH1 to CH10, for example, are prepared as audiochannels. Here, the same song is repeatedly transmitted in one eventthrough each of the audio channels CH1, CH2, CH3, . . . CH10. That is tosay, in the event from time t1 to time t2, a song B1 is repeatedlytransmitted through the audio channel CH1 and a song C1 is repeatedlytransmitted through the audio channel CH2. Likewise, a song K1 isrepeatedly transmitted through the audio channel CH10. In the eventstarting at time t2, a song B2 is repeatedly transmitted through theaudio channel CH1 and a song C2 is repeatedly transmitted through theaudio channel CH2. Likewise, a song K2 is repeatedly transmitted throughthe audio channel CH10. The same thing is common to MPEG audio channelsand four-fold speed ATRAC audio channels.

In FIG. 4, the MPEG audio channel and the four-fold speed ATRAC audiochannel having the same number in parenthesis relate to the same song.In addition, a sound addition information channel having a number inparenthesis is added to audio data of an audio channel having the samenumber. Further, static image data and text data transmitted as GUI dataare created for every channel. These items of data are time-basemultiplexed in a MPEG 2 transport packets shown in FIGS. 5( a) to 5(d)and then transmitted. They are reconstructed using header information ofthe respective data packets in the IRD 12 as shown in FIGS. 5( e) to5(h).

Now, the conceptual view of a transport stream to be transmitted isshown in FIG. 6. As shown therein, a transport stream is a group oftransport packets (TS packets) of fixed length of 188 bytes. The TSpacket consists of a header, an adaptation field and a payload. Datasuch as audio data, static image data and sound addition information arestored in the payload. A packet ID (to be referred to as ‘PID’hereinafter) for separating streams and sections is stored in theheader.

The data such as static image, moving image, sound and text constitutingGUI data and script data described to conduct predetermined processes inresponse to the operation of a user on the GUI are described in acontent description format referred to as MHEG-5 and transmitted in aprotocol referred to as DSM-CC (Digital Storage Media-Command andControl). FIG. 7 is a conceptual transmission of MHEG data in thisembodiment. Data broadcasting services are all included in a rootdirectory referred to as a service gateway. Types of the objectsincluded in the service gateway are a directory, a file, a stream, astream event and the like. Files in the service gateway are data filessuch as static image data files and text data files. The stream thereincontains information linked to data streams of other data services andthose of audio and video data streams. The stream event contains linkinformation and time information. Directories are folders for combininginterrelated data. The data consists of a group of modules and istransmitted.

A module is divided into blocks for every predetermined unit. Each blockis allotted a header and converted into a format referred to as DBB(Download Data Block). On the other hand, a control message referred toas DII (Download Inform Indication) containing information on the sizeof a module required for receiving the module at the receiver side and acontrol message referred to as DII (Download Server Initiate) containinginformation which indicates the address of a root directory of a dataservice at the receiver side are created. The three types of messages,i.e., DBB, DSI and DSI are periodically and repeatedly outputted andtransmitted in an annular structure referred to as a carousel so thatthe reception side can receive it at any time.

Next, the receiving equipment 3 in each household will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the receiving equipment 3 in each household includesthe parabola antenna 11, the IRD 12, the storage device 13 and thetelevision set 14. As shown in FIG. 8, a recording and reproducingapparatus 13A in which a magnet-optical disk referred to as MD(mini-disk) is used as a recording medium, serves as a storage device.The recording and reproducing apparatus 13A in this embodiment is avideo recorder corresponding to the connection of the bus line 16 of theIEEE1394 type. A description will now be given to a case where the IRD12 and the recording and reproducing apparatus 13A are connected by theIEEE1394 bus line 16. The recording and reproducing apparatus 13A incompliance with IEEE1394 can store audio data on songs selected in theIRD 12, jacket data on the songs and text data including lyric data. Itis to be noted that a plurality of (e.g., up to 64) equipment can belinked by the so-called link connection and a plurality of storagedevices can be also connected to the IRD 12 by the IEEE1394 bus line 16.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the constitution of the IRD 12. The IRD 12 isprovided with an input terminal T1, an analog video output terminal T2,an analog audio output terminal T3, an optical digital output interface59, an IEEE1394 interface 60, a man-machine interface 61, an IC cardslot 62, a modem 63, an infrared interface 66 as external terminals orinterfaces.

The input terminal T1 is a terminal to which a reception signalconverted into a signal at a predetermined frequency is inputted at LNB25. The analog video output terminal T2 is a terminal for supplying ananalog video signal to the television set 14. The analog audio outputterminal T3 is a terminal for supplying an analog audio signal to thetelevision set 14. The analog audio output terminal T4 is a terminal forsupplying an analog audio signal to the analog input of the storagedevice. The optical digital output interface 59 which complies withIEC958, transmits PCM audio data to an optical fiber cable (not shown).The IEEE1394 interface 60 transmits video data, audio data, variouscommands and the like to the IEEE1394 bus line. The man-machineinterface 61 transmits data inputted as an infrared signal from theremote control device 64 by the user to a control CPU 58. The IC card 65is inserted into the IC card slot 62. The modem 63 is connected to theaccounting server 5 through the telephone line 4. The infrared interface66 is an interface for controlling the storage device using the infraredsignal from the control CPU 58. An infrared signal for controllingstorage device control is outputted from an infrared output unit 67connected to the infrared interface 66 through a predetermined signalline.

The tuner 51 selects a signal at a predetermined reception frequencyfrom reception signals supplied from the terminal T1 based on a setsignal from the control CPU 58, conducts modulation processing and errorcorrecting processing to the signal, and outputs an MPEG transportstream. A descrambler 52 receives the MPEG transport stream from thetuner 51, receives key data for the descrambler stored in the IC card 65through the IC card slot 62 and the control CPU 58, and conductsdescrambling using this key data. The transport IC 53 receives a commandinputted by the user from the remote control 64 through the man-machineinterface 61 and the control CPU 58 and extracts desired TV program MPEGvideo data and MPEG audio data from the transport stream. The MPEG videodecoder 55 converts the MPEG video data supplied from the transport IC53 to video data which is not yet subjected to data compression. TheMPEG audio decoder 54 converts the MPEG audio data supplied from thetransport IC 53 to audio data (PCM audio data) which is not yetsubjected to data compression. The DA converter 56 converts the audiodata supplied from the MPEG audio decoder 54 to an analog audio signaland supplies the signal to the analog audio output terminal T3.

The control CPU 58 controls the entire IRD 12. In this case, operationalmemories 58 a and 58 b are connected to the control CPU 58. The memory58 a, which is a data rewritable memory, stores MHEG data and soundaddition information which form the GUI screen from the transport streamreceived by the tuner 51 and extracted by the transport IC 53. Thememory 58 b, which is a nonvolatile memory in which programs areinstalled at the time of manufacturing the IRD 12, stores variousprograms necessary to start the IRD 12 in advance. The programs storedin the memory 58 b includes, for example, resident programs startedbased on the MHEG data, for conducting processings such as creating theGUI screen and controlling the storage device connected to the IRD 12.

Also, the control CPU 58 receives a command inputted by the user usingthe remote control device 64 through the man-machine interface 61. Themodem 63 is connected to the control CPU 58. Information necessary foraccounting is stored in the IC card 65. The information stored in the ICcard 65 is fed to the accounting server 5 (see FIG. 1) through thetelephone line 4 using the modem 63.

The control CPU 58 creates data for a list page screen, for a musicinformation page screen and for a GUI screen. The screen data thusformed is written in predetermined areas of a buffer memory in the MPEGvideo decoder 55. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, the list page screenof songs to be broadcast, the information screen of the respective songsand the GUI screen can be displayed in designated areas of a screen.

Next, the operation of the IRD 12 shown in FIG. 9 will be described.

In the IRD 12 shown in FIG. 9, if a user selects a channel in the musiccontent transmission system which has been described so far, the GUIscreen shown in FIG. 2 is displayed on the screen of the television set14.

During this time, the reception signals inputted to the terminal T1 aresupplied to the tuner 51. The tuner 51 selects signals at apredetermined reception frequency from the reception signals based onsignal setting from the control CPU 58, conducts modulation and errorcorrection processing on to the selected signals and outputs an MPEGtransport stream.

The output of the tuner 51 is supplied to the descrambler 52. Key datafor descrambling stored in the IC card 65 is inputted to the descrambler52 through the IC card slot 62 and the control CPU 58. Using the keydata, the MPEG transport stream is subjected to descrambling. The MPEGtransport stream which has been subjected to descrambling is fed to thetransport IC 53.

A command issued from the remote control device 64 by the user isinputted to the transport IC 53 through the man-machine interface 61 andthe control CPU 58. MPEG video data and MPEG audio data for a desired TVprogram are extracted from the transport stream in accordance with thecommand and fed to the MPEG video decoder 55 and the MPEG audio decoder54, respectively.

Data separation processing of the transport IC 53 is executed by ademultiplexer contained in the transport IC 53. FIG. 10 shows theconstitution of the demultiplexer, which comprises a PID filter 81 and asection data filter 82. The PID filter 81 determines the PID (packet ID)of an inputted transport stream packet, separates the audio data and thevideo data, and supplies them to their corresponding decoders. Soundaddition information is also separated and fed toward the control CPU58. The section data filter 82 separates and sends desired section datasuch as MHEG data toward the control CPU 58.

The MPEG video data fed to the MPEG video decoder 55 is converted tovideo data which is not yet subjected to data compression, converted toa composite video signal by an NTSC conversion block 57 and thenoutputted to the television set from the analog video output terminalT2. The MPEG audio data fed to the MPEG audio decoder 54 is converted toaudio data which is not yet subjected to data compression, converted toan analog audio signal by the DA converter 56 and then outputted to thetelevision set from the analog audio output terminal T3.

A song is selected from the song list 21B on the GUI screen shown inFIG. 2. If the user wishes to listen to the audio data on the selectedsong, MPEG audio data is extracted from the transport IC 53, decoded bythe MPEG audio decoder 54, converted to an analog signal by the DAconverter 56 and outputted from the analog audio output terminal T3 tothe television set 14 (FIG. 1).

In addition, the download button 28 is depressed on the GUI screen shownin FIG. 2. If audio data is to be downloaded, audio data is extractedfrom the transport IC 53 and outputted from one of the analog audiooutput terminal T3, the optical digital output interface 59 and theIEEE1394 interface 60.

That is to say, as shown in FIG. 8, if the recording and reproducingapparatus 13A in compliance with IEEE1394 is connected to the IEEE1394interface 60, four-fold speed ATRAC data is extracted at the transportIC 53 and fed to the recording and reproducing apparatus 13A incompliance with IEEE1394 through the IEEE1394 interface 60. At thismoment, the jacket data compressed by the JPEG method is extracted atthe transport IC 53 and fed to the recording and reproducing apparatus13A in compliance with IEEE1394 through the IEEE1394 interface 60.Furthermore, at the same moment, text data such as data on lyrics, theprofile of the artist and the like is extracted at the transport IC 53and fed to the recording and reproducing apparatus 13A compliant withIEEE1394 through the IEEE1394 interface 60.

If the storage device (of a type which is not provided with an IEEE1394interface) is connected to the optical digital output interface 59, MPEGaudio data is extracted at the transport IC 53 and decoded by the MPEGaudio decoder 54. Then, PCM audio data is fed to the storage devicethrough the optical digital output interface 59, which constitution willbe described later.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of the constitution of therecording and reproducing apparatus 13A compliant with IEEE1394. Therecording and reproducing apparatus 13A compliant with IEEE1394 isprovided with an IEEE1394 interface 71, an optical digital inputinterface 72, an analog audio input terminal T12 and an analog audiooutput terminal T13. The IEEE1394 interface 71 is directly connected toa recording and reproducing unit 75. The optical digital input interface72 is connected to the recording and reproducing unit 75 through anATRAC encoder 74. The analog audio input terminal T12 is connected tothe ATRAC encoder 73 through an A/D converter 73. The analog audiooutput terminal T13 is connected to the recording and reproducing unit75 through a D/A converter 78 and an ATRAC decoder 77. A disk(magneto-optical disk) 76 is mounted at the recording and reproducingunit 75 and the disk 76 is subjected to a recording and reproductionprocessing. Although not shown in FIG. 11, also provided is a controlCPU for controlling the overall recording and reproducing apparatus 13Acompliant with IEEE1394 and a man-machine interface.

Next, a description will be given to the operation of the recording andreproducing apparatus 13A compliant with IEEE1394 during recording.

If the IEEE1394 interface 71 is connected to the IEEE1394 interface 60of the IRD 12 shown in FIG. 9, the audio data on songs, text data onlyrics and the like, and static image data on jackets and the like fedfrom the IEEE1394 interface 60 are inputted from the IEEE1394 interface71 and recorded on the disk 76 by the recording and reproducing unit 75.As will be described later, respective items of data are recorded on thedisk 76 in the extended MD format at this moment. In addition, copyrightinformation on each data is also inputted from the IEEE1394 interface 71and recorded in a corresponding table of contents information (TOC)area.

If PCM audio data is inputted from an external side to the opticaldigital input interface 72, the PCM audio data inputted is encoded bythe ATRAC encoder 74 and recorded on the disk 76 by the recording andreproducing unit 75.

If an analog audio signal is inputted from an external side to theanalog audio input terminal T12, the analog audio signal inputted isconverted to a digital signal by the AD converter 73, encoded by theATRAC encoder 74 and then recorded on the disk 76 by the recording andreproducing unit 75.

That is, in the recording and reproducing apparatus 13A compliant withIEEE1394, only if the apparatus 13A is connected to the IRD 12 throughthe IEEE1394 interfaces, lyric data and static image data on jackets aswell as audio data on songs are recorded on the disk. If the apparatus13 is connected thereto through the optical digital interface or at theanalog audio output terminal, only audio data is recorded on the disk.

During reproduction, a reproduction signal can be outputted from theIEEE1394 interface 71 or the analog audio output terminal T13. If thereproduction signal is outputted from the IEEE1394 interface 71 and notonly audio data on songs but also data on the lyrics of the songs andthat on the jackets thereof are recorded on the disk 76, it is possibleto output music data to audio equipment (such as an amplifier) incompliance with IEEE1394, to display the lyric data and jacket data on adisplay in compliance with IEEE1394 and to print them out by a printerin compliance with IEEE1394.

As stated above, the recording and reproducing apparatus 13A compliantwith IEEE1394, to which the present invention may be applied, is capableof recording and reproducing not only audio data on songs but also dataon the lyrics of the songs and data on the jackets thereof.

The above-described recording and reproduction can be carried out byusing an extended MD format shown in FIG. 12. As shown therein, audiodata on songs is recorded in a Main Data area by the ATRAC method. Thisis the same as the existing MD format. The ATRAC audio data up to 74minutes is recorded in the Main Data area. Table of contents informationsuch as recording positions of the respective songs and auxiliary TOCinformation such as copy prohibition information on the respective songsare recorded in a User Table Of Contents area for the audio datarecorded on the Main Data area. In the extended MD format, theabove-described jacket data (static image data), lyric data (text data)and the like are recorded in a 2.8 Mbyte Auxiliary Data area. TOCinformation on the data recorded in this Auxiliary Data area is recordedin an Auxiliary TOC area. At this moment, auxiliary TOC information suchas copy prohibition information for the static image data and text datais recorded in the Auxiliary TOC information area. Thus, if the extendedMD format is employed, it is possible to record and reproduce not onlyaudio data on songs but also jacket data and lyric data. It is alsopossible to maintain compatibility with the existing MD format.

Next, a description will be given to the processing for downloadingATRAC audio data on songs, which is a music program, and jacket data andlyric data as sound addition information in a receiving device withreference to the flow chart of FIG. 13.

First, a user selects an EMD (Electric Music Download) channel, i.e., amusic broadcast channel allowing downloading music data, as stated sofar, in the IRD 12 (in a step 101). Specifically, while looking at anEPG screen displayed on the television set 14, the user issues a channelselection command to the remote control device 64. In the IRD 12, thecontrol CPU 58 receives the user's channel selection command through theman-machine interface 61, transmits a channel setting signal to thetuner 51 to thereby set a desired channel.

If this channel is selected, the control CPU 58 determines whether ornot MHEG data for creating a GUI screen (list screen) exists on theselected channel while referring to section data referred to as PMT(Program Map Table) (in a step 102). If no MHEG data for GUI screenexists, the CPU 58 determines that the selected channel is not fordownload processing in this embodiment and finishes the processing. Ifthe channel from which the above-stated ATRAC audio data is transmittedis selected, MHEG data for GUI screen exists. The control CPU 58 thenstarts a program, prepared in advance in the operational memory 58 b,for interpreting MHEG data and interprets the received MHEG data (in astep 103).

Thereafter, based on the interpreted MHEG data, the control CPU 58creates image data for the GUI screen, supplies the image data to thedecoder 55 and causes the data to be displayed on the screen of thetelevision set 14 connected to the IRD 12 (in a step 104). The GUIscreen displayed at this moment is a screen shown in, for example, FIG.2. Here, the control CPU 58 stands by until the operation of selecting asong displayed on the screen and that of downloading the selected songare conducted by the key operation of the remote control device 64 (in astep 105). If a remote control signal corresponding to the operation ofdepressing a portion 28 on which ‘download’ is indicated is supplied,the CPU 58 starts a get device program among the resident programsprepared in advance in the memory 58 b, acquires the equipment ID of thestorage device 13A connected by the IEEE1394 bus line using the program,and carries out processing for passing the MHEG data to the executionprocessing unit (in a step 106). An equipment ID means an identificationcode of predetermined bits (64 bits in this embodiment) allotted inadvance to an equipment connected by the IEEE1394 bus line. An equipmentmanufacturer code, an equipment type code, an equipment serial code andthe like are set into a predetermined standard arrangement. Bydetermining the equipment ID by means of the program prepared in thememory 58 b, the control CPU 58 can know the type and function of theconnected equipment. The details of the processing for acquiring anequipment ID by mean of a resident program will be described later.

If the control CPU 58 acquires the equipment ID of the storage deviceconnected to the IRD 12, the CPU 58 creates GUI data for displaying alist of the equipment connected thereto based on the equipment ID andsupplies the GUI data to the decoder 55 to thereby display the GUI dataon the screen of the television set 14 connected to the IRD 12 (in astep 107). Here, the control CPU 58 stands by until the operation ofselecting the equipment displayed on this screen is carried out by thekey operation of the remote control device 64 (in a step 108). If aremote control signal corresponding to the operation of selecting thisequipment is supplied, the CPU 58 stands by until the ATRAC data on thesong for which the download command is issued by the user is received.When reception timing comes, the ATRAC data on the song, static imagedata (JPEG data) such as data on the jacket of the song and text datasuch as lyric data are fed to the selected equipment (storage device)from the IEEE1394 interface 60 through the bus line 16. The datatransmitted from the IEEE1394 interface 60 is allotted a node ID set tothe selected equipment as a transmission destination address. Also, theATRAC data which is the audio data on the song is subjected toisochronous transfer (synchronous transfer). JPEG data and text data aresubjected to asynchronous transfer. Control data for executingprocessing for recording ATRAC data to be transmitted in thetransmission destination equipment is also subjected to asynchronoustransfer. By so doing, the data fed to the bus line 16 is recorded onthe connected equipment, i.e., in this embodiment, the disk mounted atthe recording and reproducing apparatus 13A compliant with IEEE1394 in astate shown in FIG. 12.

The control CPU 58 determines whether or not the download of all of thedata on the songs selected by the IEEE1394 bus line 16 is finished (in astep 110). If the CPU determines the download is finished, it thendetermines whether or not a command to download another song is issued(in a step 111). If the latter command is issued, the CPU 58 conductsprocessing for downloading the song back in the step 109. If the CPU 58determines that the download of all of the selected songs is finished,the download processing is finished. It is noted that if the ATRAC audiodata is pay data, predetermined accounting processing is carried out atthe time of downloading the ATRAC audio data and the like (whichaccounting processing will not be described in detail herein).

Next, the processing for acquiring the equipment ID by means of theresident program shown in the flow chart will be described in detailwith reference to the flow chart of FIG. 14 and the view indicating thecorrespondence of programs with addresses shown in FIG. 15. First, thestates of programs will be described with reference to FIG. 15. Thereceived MHEG data is stored in the memory 58 a connected to the controlCPU 58. The MHEG data contains programs (script) created by thebroadcasting station. For example, a program for commanding downloadprocessing (download program), a program for controlling the connectedstorage device (control device program), a program for acquiring theequipment ID of the connected storage device (get device program) andvariables setting areas set by the respective processings are prepared.In addition, the control CPU 58 sets addresses of resident programscorresponding to commands from the programs for various processings. Thememory 58 b stores resident programs as stated above and programs forexecuting the commands are prepared in advance at predeterminedaddresses, respectively.

Description will now be given to the processing for acquiring theequipment ID by using a resident program in a state in which therespective programs are set as stated above, based on the flow chart ofFIG. 14. If a command corresponding to the operation of depressing thedownload button in the step 105 in the flow chart of FIG. 13 is issued,the name of a resident program (get device program in this embodiment)to be started by the operation of the script is passed to an operationprocessing unit in the control CPU 58 (in a step 121). This operationprocessing unit determines the recording address at which acorresponding program (get device program) is stored in the memory 58 b,based on the data on the correspondence of the resident programsprepared by the IRD 12 with addresses and sends a command to execute theprogram at the address (in a step 122).

By the issuance of the execution command, the get device program storedin the memory 58 b is executed by the operation processing unit in thecontrol CPU 58 (in a step 123). By executing this get device program,the data for requesting the return of the equipment ID is transmittedfrom the IEEE1394 interface 60 to all the nodes (equipment) connected tothe interface 60 by the bus line by means of, for example, asynchronoustransfer. All of the nodes, at which the data is received, return theequipment IDs allotted thereto to the IRD 12 through the bus line bymeans of asynchronous transfer and the returned data is supplied to thecontrol CPU 58 from the IEEE1394 interface 60. If the equipment IDs aretransmitted to the control CPU 58, the control CPU 58 determines thetypes of the equipment from the transmitted equipment IDs.

At this moment, if there is provided an equipment (such as the IEEEcompliant recording and reproducing apparatus 13A connected to the IRD12 as shown in FIG. 8) serving as a storage device capable of recordingATRAC audio data, then the control CPU 58 creates image data fordisplaying a list of the equipment on the screen using the residentprogram and supplies the image data to the decoder 55 to thereby displaythe data on the screen of the television set 14 connected to the IRD 12(in a step 124). As for the display of the equipment list, the names oftypes (such as abbreviations of type names including MD, DVD, PC and thelike) of the equipment which are determined from the equipment IDs aredisplayed. If a plurality of equipment have the same name, number addednames such as MD1 ad MD2 are displayed. In some cases, more detailedinformation such as the names of manufacturers may be displayed. Thestep 108 of user's selecting the equipment and the following steps arethe same as those described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 13.

By conducting these processings, if the equipment serving as a storagedevice capable of recording ATRAC audio data is connected to the IRD 12through the IEEE1394 bus line, processing for creating a list ofequipment connected thereto is started based on the MHEG datatransmitted from the broadcasting station together with the ATRAC audiodata. Since the processing is executed by the resident program preparedin advance in the IRD 12, the list is displayed and the equipment towhich the ATRAC audio data and the like are downloaded can be easilyselected. Although the list is apparently displayed by the IRD 12 fromthe MEHG data transmitted from the broadcasting station, the detail ofthe processing for acquiring the equipment ID is actually executed bythe resident program prepared in the IRD 12 and the equipment IDacquisition processing is appropriately conducted based on the actualconstitution of the IRD 12. If, in particular, using the IEEE1394 busline, a large number of equipment (such as 64 equipment) can beconnected to the IRD, so that the selection processing in a case aplurality of equipment is connected to the IRD 12 through the bus line,can be efficiently conducted based on the displayed list.

The processings shown in the flow chart of FIG. 13 indicate that theequipment IDs are acquired and a list of all the connected equipment isdisplayed whenever download processing is selected. However, theequipment ID or the like of a selected equipment may be stored so thatthe equipment having the stored ID can be preferentially used in thenext download processings. The flow chart of FIG. 16 shows theseprocessings. The step 101 in which the user selects an EMD channel inthe IRD 12 to the step 105 of downloading the selected song are the sameas those in the flow chart of FIG. 13.

Now, if the operation of depressing the download button is conducted ina step 105, the control CPU 58 for controlling in the IRD 12 conductsprocessing for acquiring the equipment ID by default for the CPU 58 (ina step 131). By executing this processing, it is determined whether ornot the default equipment ID, which has bee acquired before, exists inthe control CPU 58 (in a step 132). If there is the default equipmentID, the control CPU 58 creates image data for confirming that the datais downloaded to the default equipment and displays the data on thescreen of the television set 14, to thereby make the user confirm thatthe data is downloaded to the default equipment (in a step 133). If thedownload of data to the equipment is selected by the operation of theremote control device 64, the download of data to the default equipmentis executed in the same manner as that in the processing of the step 110in the flow chart of FIG. 13 already described above (in a step 134). Itis then determined that the download processing is finished (in a step135). The equipment ID of the equipment to which the data is downloadedis stored in a predetermined memory in the control CPU 58 and set as adefault ID (in a step 16). Thereafter, it is determined whether or notanother data to be downloaded exists (in a step 137). If it exists, theprocessing goes back to the step 105. If it does not, the downloadprocessing is finished.

If it is determined that the ID of the default equipment does not existin the step 132 and the download of data to equipment other than thedefault one is selected in the step 133, the processing goes to a step141, in which processing for acquiring an equipment ID by the get deviceprogram is conducted and a equipment list is displayed based on theacquired equipment ID. Then, an equipment is selected from the list byuser's operation (in a step 142) and the download of data to theselected equipment is executed (in a step 143). The processings in thesteps 141 to 143 are the same as those in the steps 106 to 109 whichhave been already described above with reference to the flow chart ofFIG. 13. After download starts in the step 143, the processing goes tothe step 135 in which the CPU stands by until the download is finished.The equipment ID of the equipment to which data is downloaded is storedin a predetermined memory in the control CPU 58 and set as a defaultequipment (in a step 136).

In this way, if the ID of the equipment used in the previous downloadprocessing is stored as a default in the IRD 12, next time there is noneed to conduct processing for acquiring the ID of the equipmentconnected by the bus line, thereby making it possible to reduce timerequired for selection processing. In addition, since only theconfirmation operation in the step 133 is necessary as the selectionoperation required of the user, it is possible to make operation quitesimple.

It is noted that although the above-described embodiment concernsprocessing for downloading data to the storage device connected to theIRD 12 through the IEEE1394 bus line, it is possible to download data toa storage device which is not provided with an IEEE1394 interface. FIG.17 shows an example of the system constitution of the receivingequipment in the latter case. A disk recording and reproducing apparatus13B, in which a magneto-optical disk called MD is used, serves as thestorage device prepared in the case of FIG. 17. The apparatus 13B isprovided with an optical digital input interface 72 which is connectedto the optical digital output interface 59 of the IRD 12 by an opticalcable 17 (or coaxial cable) to allow transmitting digital data. Also,the apparatus 13 is provided with a man-machine interface 79 a at whicha remote control signal is inputted by infrared radiation. An infraredoutput unit 67 connected to the infrared interface 66 (see FIG. 9) ofthe IRD 12 is arranged in the vicinity of the infrared receiving unit ofthe man-machine interface 79 a.

The constitution of the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 13B isshown in FIG. 18. The basic constitution for recording and reproducingdata on/from the disk is the same as that of the disk recording andreproducing apparatus 13A shown in FIG. 11. The disk recording andreproducing apparatus 13B, however, lacks an IEEE1394 interface and theman-machine interface 79 a at which a remote control signal is inputtedis connected to a control CPU 79. The remaining constitution is the sameas that of the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 13A shown inFIG. 11.

With this constitution, some setting screen (such as an initial settingscreen) is displayed on the television set 14 based on GUI data createdby the control CPU 58 in the IRD 12. Selection operation is conducted onthe screen by, for example, operating the remote control device 64 tothereby set that the disk recording and reproducing apparatus 13B isconnected to the IRD 12 by user's operation. In this case, the type ofthe connected equipment or the like is set by the user's operation.Based on the information set by the user's operation, the control CPU 58allots an equipment ID peculiar to the connected equipment. For example,if the ID of the equipment connected by the above-stated IEEE1394 busline consists of 64 bits, the equipment ID set by the user's operationconsists of 65 bits, one bit allotted to the least significant bit ofthe 64 bits, so that the allotted one bit allows recognizing that thecode of 65 bits is allotted by user's setting. The 64 bits other thanthe least significant one bit are set based on a state set by the user.Alternatively, those other than the least significant one bit may beignored.

If a download command is issued, the received MPEG audio data is decodedby the audio decoder 54 in the IRD 12 to digital audio data, which isthen supplied to the optical digital input interface 72 of the diskrecording and reproducing apparatus 13B from the optical digital outputinterface 59 by the optical cable 17. The control CPU 58 of the IRD 12creates a command to control recording operation in the recording andreproducing apparatus 13B and outputs the command from the infraredoutput unit 67 to the man-machine interface 79 a of the recording andreproducing apparatus 13B through the infrared interface 66. As aresult, the digital audio data supplied through the optical digitalcable can be recorded on the disk. Here, the recording and reproducingapparatus 13B encodes and compresses the supplied audio data to ATRACaudio data, and records the encoded ATRAC audio data.

At the timing at which download processing is finished, the control CPU58 in the IRD 12 creates a command to stop recording in the recordingand reproducing apparatus 13B and outputs the command from the infraredoutput unit 67 to the man-machine interface 79 a of the recording andreproducing apparatus 13B through the infrared interface 66. As aresult, the operation of recording data on the disk can be stopped.

It is noted that in case of downloading data to the storage devicethrough the connection which does not employ a bus line, the staticimage data and text data attached to the music data are not transmittedand only the audio data is recorded on the disk.

With this constitution, it is possible to deal with the download of datato a storage device which is not provided with an interface to anIEEE1394 bus line.

The above-stated embodiment concerns processing for downloading audiodata to the storage device in which a recording medium referred to as MD(mini-disk) is used. However, the present invention is also applicableto processing for downloading other audio data obtained from theexternal unit, image data, electronic mail data, various internetcontent data and the like to the connected storage device based on theprogram data transmitted simultaneously with the above data from thedata transmission side.

Next, description will be given to processing for downloading copyrightinformation conducted at the time of downloading the ATRAC audio datareceived in the IRD 12, with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 19. Theprocessing for downloading copyright information is executed when, forexample, data is downloaded to the selected equipment in the step 109shown in the flow chart f FIG. 13.

First, if an MHEG channel is selected as a channel to be received andselected at the tuner 51 (in a step 141), the PMT (program map table) ofthe channel is acquired (in a step 142). Here, the MHEG channel is ofcarousel structure in which data blocks are periodically and repeatedlytransmitted, as described in FIG. 7. The PID (packet ID) of a controlmessage referred to as DSI is detected by the transport IC 53 in the IRD12, corresponding MHEG data is downloaded to the control CPU 58 and aprogram directed by the MHEG data is started in the control CPU 58 (in astep 143).

The control CPU 58 sets the PID of the DSI at the demultiplexer 80 (seeFIG. 10) in the transport ID 53 and acquires DSI data (in a step 144).The control CPU 58 analyzes the acquired DSI data and acquires the PIDof the DII having root directory information (in a step 145). Thecontrol CPU 58 sets the PID of the DII at the demultiplexer 80 in thetransport IC 53 and acquires DII data (in a step 146). Based on the DSIdata and the DII data, a file in the lower directory to be transmittedis read (in a step 147). The control CPU 58 determines whether or notnecessary, desired data could be acquired based on the data thus read(in a step 148). The data necessary at this moment are copyrightinformation on the audio data on the songs, for which a download commandis issued in the processing in the flow chart of FIG. 13, and dataattached thereto (static image data, text data and the like). If thecopyright information cannot be read, processing for re-reading data isconducted back in the step 146.

If the copyright information on the respective data can be read in thestep 148, the copyright information read therein is allotted to therespective items of data (audio data, static image data, text data), andfed to the disk in the selected storage device (disk recording andreproducing apparatus 13A in this embodiment) through the IEEE1394 busline (in a step 149). In the disk recording and reproducing apparatus13A to which the data is fed through the bus line, the respective itemsof data are recorded on the disk in, for example, the extended MD formatshown in FIG. 12 (in a step 150). Namely, the ATRAC audio data on thesongs are recorded in the Main Data area in the extended MD format, copyinformation based on the copyright information as well as timeinformation on the respective songs are recorded in the TOC informationarea, the static image data and text data on the respective songs arerecorded in the Auxiliary Data area, and TOC information on the staticimage data and text data and copy information based on the copyrightinformation are recorded in the Auxiliary TOC area.

As for the relationship between the copyright information transmittedfrom the transmission side and the copy information recorded on therecording medium (digital), if, for example, the transmitted copyrightinformation is information for prohibiting digital copy, copyinformation to be recorded in accordance with the data becomes a digitalcopy prohibiting code. If the transmitted copyright information isinformation for permitting digital copy for a predetermined time (suchas once), copy information to be recorded in accordance with the databecomes a code for permitting digital copy once. If the transmittedcopyright information is information indicating that digital copy is notrestricted, copy information to be recorded in accordance with the databecomes a code indicating that digital copy is not restricted.

These series of processings are conducted if the IRD is set to a stateensuring correct accounting processing. If the IRD 12 is not set so,data such as audio data is not transmitted to the recording apparatusfrom the IRD 12.

In the download processing shown in the flow chart of FIG. 13, if thecontrol CPU 58 determines from the equipment IDs that the recordingapparatus selected in the step 108 to execute download processing is arecording apparatus in which data is recorded on a recording medium in aformat which does not permit digital copy restriction processing, thenit is controlled that data having a copyright (data which reproductionis restricted) is not outputted from the IEEE1394 interface 60. Forexample, like a hard disk recording and reproducing apparatus includedin PC unit as a recording and reproducing apparatus to be downloaded,when the apparatus is the apparatus which can basically conduct digitalcopy to other recording medium after recording to the recording medium,it is controlled that data on a song having copyright is not transmittedto the recording and reproducing apparatus freely. If the MD (mini-disk)stated above is a recording and reproducing apparatus 13A, the MD formatis constructed such that digital copy restriction processing can beappropriately conducted between the reproducing apparatus dealing withthe MD and the other recording apparatus based on the copy informationrecorded in the TOC information, whereby copyright can be protected.

If data is downloaded to the storage device connected to the IRD basedon the copyright information transmitted from the transmission side, thecopyright information is also downloaded thereto to thereby record databased on the copyright information as well as data on the songs on therecording medium, thus ensuring appropriate recording processing so asnot to violate copyright. In this embodiment, in particular, copyrightinformation on the static image data serving as jacket data and textdata such as lyric data attached to the audio data on the respectivesongs is also individually transmitted, whereby copy restrictionprocessing for the respective recorded data can be appropriatelyconducted based on the copyrights for the respective data.

The above-described embodiment concerns processing for downloading audiodata to the storage device in which the recording medium referred to asMD (mini-disk) is used. However, the present invention is alsoapplicable to a case where, while other audio data obtained from theexternal unit, image data, electronic mail data, various internetcontent data and the like are downloaded to the connected storage deviceand recorded on the disk, copyright information transmittedsimultaneously with the above data from the data transmission side isrecorded.

Next, a description will be given to processing for retrieving a desiredsong at the time of downloading ATRAC audio data and the like receivedin the IRD 12. First, the processing for retrieving a song is executedas follows. If the operation of the remote control device 64corresponding to that of depressing the recording reservation button 25on the screen is carried out in a state shown in, for example, FIG. 2 inwhich the GUI screen is displayed, the control CPU 58 detects that aninfrared signal is inputted by the man-machine interface 61 by the aboveoperation. If the recording reservation button 25 is depressed, the GUIscreen is switched under the control of the control CPU 58 and a list ofsongs which can be reserved is displayed on the screen of the televisionset 14.

The list is displayed based on, for example, text data indicating thetitles of songs and the names of performers. The text data istransmitted in a packet different from that of the text data indicatinglyrics of the songs as stated above. As shown in, for example, FIG. 21,text data on one song consists of a text data string having a characterstring of the name of the performer (artist name), a tab code, acharacter string of the title of the song, a line feed code arranged inthis order. The text data on all of the songs each having thisarrangement in this order and transmitted in a predetermined period oftime (e.g., in a day) are fed from the transmission side periodicallyand repeatedly.

Based on the text data, a list of songs which can be reserved isdisplayed. It is possible to display the list of songs simply in theorder in which the songs are put on the air. However, if the operationof the remote control device 64 corresponding to the depression of aretrieval button (not shown) on the list display screen is conducted andthe control CPU 58 detects that an infrared signal is inputted by theman-machine interface 61 by this operation, then retrieval processingbased on the text data is started (note that user operations other thanthis operation are also detected by the control CPU 58). The flow chartof FIG. 20 shows this retrieval processings, which will be describedbased on FIG. 20. First, the control CPU 58 controls the extraction oftext data indicating the names of performers and the titles of songsfrom the data being broadcast (in a step 201).

If the text data indicating the names of performers and the titles ofsongs are extracted, they are stored in a memory connected to thecontrol CPU 58. At this moment, if the user designates retrieval itemsusing the remote control device 64 or the like, the control CPU 58passes the data of the corresponding row or column number to a residentprogram (in a step 202). Then, if the user inputs character strings tobe retrieved by the operation of the remote control device 64 or thelike (in a step 203), the character strings to be retrieved are set asvariables to be referred to while the resident program is executingretrieval processing (in a step 204).

Now, the resident program conducts retrieval processing, for extractingrows or columns including the character strings to be retrieved from thedesignated items and the text data including the extracted row or columnis set as retrieved data (in a step 205). After this processing, it isdetermined whether or not all of the items have been retrieved (in astep 206). If there exists data which is not retrieved yet, processingreturns to the step 205 in which data retrieval is repeated. If all ofthe data have been retrieved, the control CPU 58 conducts controlprocessing for displaying a list of characters in the designated row orcolumn from the text data set as retrieved data in the step 205 (in astep 207). As a result of this control processing, image data fordisplaying the retrieval result is supplied to the decoder 55 and theretrieval result is, thereby, displayed on the screen of the televisionset 14 connected to the IRD 12.

If the retrieval result includes a plurality of names and titles, it isdetermined whether or not further retrieval is necessary to retrieve onename and one title from the result (in a step 208). If further retrievalis to be conducted, processing goes back to the step 201. If retrievalprocessing is finished, input operation for selecting a user's desiredsong is carried out using the names of performers and titles of songsand a reservation is made for the download of the selected song (in astep 209). This download reservation corresponds to the operation ofdepressing the download button in the step 105 in the flow chart of FIG.13. The following steps are the same as those in the step 106 and thefollowing of selecting equipment.

By conducting retrieval processing as stated above, a desired song to bedownloaded can be easily selected from the text data indicating thenames of performers and the titles of songs transmitted as broadcastsignals. Even if many songs are transmitted, the user's desired song canbe easily downloaded. In this embodiment, in particular, the text dataindicating the titles of transmitted songs and the names of performersare arranged continuously by providing tab codes and line feed codes, sothat the data on the target song can be efficiently retrieved from thecontinuous text data.

The above-described embodiment concerns processing for downloading audiodata to the storage device in which the recording medium referred to asMD (mini-disk) is used. However, the present invention is alsoapplicable to a case where, while other audio data obtained from theexternal unit, image data, electronic mail data, various internetcontent data and the like are downloaded to the connected storage deviceand recorded on the disk, retrieval processing is conducted based on thetext data attached to the main data among the above data.

In addition, in the above embodiments, the digital satellitebroadcasting relaying by means of the artificial satellite is employedas a transmission line from the side of transmitting audio data or thelike to the reception equipment. However, other broadcastingtransmission lines may be employed. For example, an optical cable orcoaxial cable referred to as cable TV may be employed. For example,ATRAC audio data or the like may be transmitted through a predeterminedchannel on the transmission line directly connecting the transmissionside and the reception equipment by a wired line and the same downloadprocessing as stated above may be conducted at the reception equipmentside. It is also possible to use other transmission lines such as atelephone line.

In the above embodiments, the storage device and the equipment areconnected by the IEEE1394 bus line. It goes without saying that othertypes of data transmission lines may be employed instead of the IEEE1394bus line.

According to the present invention, the acquisition of information onthe second equipment by the first program inputted from the externalside to the first equipment is executed by the second program preparedin the first equipment. Due to this, content data obtained from theexternal side can be easily downloaded to the connected equipment.

According to the present invention, the copyright information as well asdata is transmitted to the recording apparatus to thereby make itpossible to record the copyright information as well as the data at therecording apparatus side. As a result, copyright can be properlyprotected.

According to the present invention, the retrieval means can retrievenecessary data based on the received text data string received by thereceiving means and the control means can download the retrieved data.

Having described preferred embodiments of the invention with referenceto the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the inventionis not limited to those precise embodiments and that various changes andmodifications could be effected therein by one skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as definedin the appended claims.

Although the invention herein has been described with reference toparticular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodimentsare merely illustrative of the principles and applications of thepresent invention. It is therefore to be understood that numerousmodifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that otherarrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A data receiving apparatus, comprising:means for generating display data to display a list of digital songtitles; means for downloading, to the data receiving apparatus, audiodata of at least one digital song selected from the list of digital songtitles by a user, and for downloading auxiliary data related to theselected digital song and including at least one piece of artwork forthe selected song and text data corresponding to the selected song, theauxiliary data being downloaded with the selected digital song; adigital interface configured to connect to external devices; means foracquiring a device ID from each of the external devices that areconnected to the digital interface and for determining if there is adefault device ID, the device IDs being allocated to each of theexternal devices prior to connecting to the digital interface; and meansfor controlling display of a list of the external devices on the basisof the device IDs acquired from each of the external devices by themeans for acquiring, and for automatically transferring, when there is adefault device ID, the downloaded digital song with the auxiliary datarelated to the downloaded digital song from the data receiving apparatusto the external device corresponding to the default device ID, and forautomatically transferring, when there is not a default device ID, thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data related to thedownloaded digital song from the data receiving apparatus to a selectedone of the external devices directly in response to the user selectingthe one external device from the list of the external devices, theselected one of the external devices automatically storing thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data upon receipt of thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data transferred from thedata receiving apparatus.
 2. The data receiving apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein, when the selected external device is a predetermineddevice, the means for controlling causes the external device to record,together with the digital song, GUI data regarding the digital song. 3.The data receiving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:means for storing the information regarding the external devices; andmeans for displaying the information regarding the external devices thatare stored in the means for storing.
 4. The data receiving apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the digital song is compressed, andwherein, when the selected external device is a predetermined device,the means for controlling decompresses the digital song, and causes theselected external device to record the decompressed digital song.
 5. Thedata receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the piece ofartwork is a static image of an album jacket, the text data are lyricsfor the selected song, and the auxiliary data further includes a profileof an artist of the selected song.
 6. The data receiving apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the device IDs is one of a manufacturercode, an equipment type code, and an equipment serial code.
 7. The datareceiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means forcontrolling determines a type of each external device based on thereceived device ID and displays the type of each external deviceconnected to the digital interface.
 8. The data receiving apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the means for downloading downloads theaudio data and the auxiliary data of the at least one digital songindependent of video data corresponding to the at least one digitalsong.
 9. The data receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thedata receiving apparatus converts the downloaded digital song and thecorresponding auxiliary data from a first format into a second formatsuitable for storage on the external devices prior to transferring thedownloaded digital song and the corresponding auxiliary data to theselected one of the external devices.
 10. A method of a data receivingapparatus for transferring at least one digital song, the methodcomprising: generating, by the data receiving apparatus, display datathat is used by the data receiving apparatus to display a list ofdigital song titles; downloading, to the data receiving apparatus, audiodata of at least one digital song selected from the list of digital songtitles by a user, and downloading auxiliary data related to the selecteddigital song and including at least one piece of artwork for theselected song and text data corresponding to the selected song, theauxiliary data being downloaded with the selected digital song;acquiring a device ID from each of external devices that are connectedto a digital interface and determining if there is a default device ID,the device IDs being allocated to each of the external devices prior toconnecting to the digital interface; causing display of a list of theexternal devices on the basis of the device IDs acquired from each ofthe external devices by the acquiring step; automatically transferring,when there is a default device ID, the downloaded digital song with theauxiliary data related to the downloaded digital song from the datareceiving apparatus to the external device corresponding to the defaultdevice ID; and automatically transferring, when there is not a defaultdevice ID, the downloaded digital song with the auxiliary data relatedto the downloaded digital song from the data receiving apparatus to aselected one of the external devices directly in response to the userselecting the one external device from the list of the external devices,the selected one of the external devices automatically storing thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data upon receipt of thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data transferred from thedata receiving apparatus.
 11. The data receiving method according toclaim 10, wherein, when the selected external device is a predetermineddevice, the selected external device is caused to record, together withthe digital song, GUI data regarding the digital song.
 12. The datareceiving method according to claim 10, further comprising: storing theinformation regarding the external devices; and causing display of theinformation regarding the external devices that are stored by thestoring step.
 13. The data receiving method according to claim 10,wherein the digital song is compressed, and wherein, when the selectedexternal device is a predetermined device, the digital song isdecompressed, and the selected external device is caused to record thedecompressed digital song.
 14. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium having embedded therein instructions, which when executedby a computer as a data receiving apparatus, cause the computer toperform a method comprising: generating display data that is used todisplay a list of digital song titles; downloading, to the datareceiving apparatus, audio data of at least one digital song selectedfrom the list of digital song titles by a user, and downloadingauxiliary data related to the selected digital song and including atleast one piece of artwork for the song and text data corresponding tothe selected song, the auxiliary data being downloaded with the selecteddigital song; acquiring a device ID from each of external devices thatare connected to a digital interface and determining if there is adefault device ID, the device IDs being allocated to each of theexternal devices prior to connecting to the digital interface; causingdisplay of a list of the external devices on the basis of the device IDsacquired from each of the external devices by the acquiring step;automatically transferring, when there is a default device ID, thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data related to thedownloaded digital song from the data receiving apparatus to theexternal device corresponding to the default device ID; andautomatically transferring, when there is not a default device ID, thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data related from the datareceiving apparatus to the downloaded digital song to a selected one ofthe external devices directly in response to the user selecting the oneexternal device from the list of the external devices, the selected oneof the external devices automatically storing the downloaded digitalsong with the auxiliary data upon receipt of the downloaded digital songwith the auxiliary data transferred from the data receiving apparatus.15. A data receiving apparatus, comprising: a controller configured togenerate display data that is used to display a list of digital songtitles, download, to the data receiving apparatus, audio data of atleast one digital song selected from the list of digital song titles bya user, download auxiliary data related to the selected digital song andincluding at least one piece of artwork for the selected song and textdata corresponding to the selected song, the auxiliary data beingdownloaded with the selected digital song; and a digital interfaceconfigured to connect to external devices, acquire a device ID from eachof the external devices that are connected to the digital interface anddetermine if there is a default device ID, the device IDs beingallocated to each of the external devices prior to connecting to thedigital interface, cause the display of a list of the external deviceson the basis of the device IDs acquired from each of the externaldevices by the controller, and automatically transfer, when there is adefault device ID, the downloaded digital song with the auxiliary datarelated to the downloaded digital song from the data receiving apparatusto the external device corresponding to the default device ID, andautomatically transfer, when there is not a default device ID, thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data related to thedownloaded digital song from the data receiving apparatus to a selectedone of the external devices directly in response to the user selectingthe one external device from the list of the external devices, theselected one of the external devices automatically storing thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data upon receipt of thedownloaded digital song with the auxiliary data transferred from thedata receiving apparatus.
 16. The data receiving apparatus according toclaim 15, wherein the controller is further configured to transfer aplurality of digital songs to the one of the external devices, inresponse to the selection from the list of the external devices by theuser.
 17. The data receiving apparatus according to claim 15, whereinthe digital interface is a local serial bus interface.